Chapter 130 - Chapter 127: Episode 125 - S-Rank Hunter Lee Shin-ah
Lee Shin-ah had a lot on her mind as she watched her daughter, Hyun-ah, walk out of the office.
She was reflecting on why she and Ji-ah hadn't paid much attention to Hyun-ah all this time.
She had been afraid that placing too much of a burden on Hyun-ah would cause her to collapse under the pressure.
Ever since Lee Ji-ah, her other daughter and Hyun-ah's younger sister, awakened and became an A-rank hunter, it was clear that Hyun-ah had grown weary of my favor.
I didn't want Hyun-ah to know about the position of representative of the Han-il Guild or the succession that came with it.
Because this weight was far too heavy for my soft-hearted and talentless eldest daughter to bear.
That was why I had decided to pass the succession to Lee Ji-ah.
However, the situation had changed now.
It was clear that the high-ranking executives within the Han-il Guild would support my eldest daughter, Hyun-ah.
But I only wished that such a thing wouldn't happen.
I was afraid of my own daughters, born from the same womb, fighting out of jealousy.
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I was afraid it would turn into a relationship like the one between me and my own eonni.
My eonni, who was only a year older than me, had been the object of my admiration.
At the young age of 14, she awakened the 'Sensory Enhancement' ability among the physical-type abilities and started out as a C-rank.
I can still recall the sight of her struggling every day in the training hall to hone her abilities.
Our mother, Lee Han-il, showered me with more attention than she did my eonni.
But the gazes of those around us were cold.
The fact that my position had narrowed because I had such an outstanding eonni was an inferiority complex I couldn't speak of to anyone.
To overcome that inferiority, I tried countless things to awaken my own abilities.
Despite being a normal person, I followed teams into Gates and even fought captured monsters directly.
That went on for three years.
Eventually, realizing that my desire and wish to surpass my eonni would never come true, I tried to end my life to be liberated from the pain.
The moment I fell from the building, burning with jealousy for my eonni one last time, I awakened the Gravity Manipulation ability.
And so, at 16, I awakened the A-rank ability, 'Gravity Manipulation'.
My eonni had remained a C-rank even after three years of all that effort.
An eonni who was worse than me, even though I started at B-rank.
I began to incite our mother and badmouth my eonni.
I spread rumors about her being lazy and lacking effort, turning even those around her against her.
The sight of my eonni shedding tears in frustration still comes to mind vividly.
Watching my eonni suffer like that, I felt my own jealousy and inferiority slowly fading away.
Then, one day, the winter my eonni turned 18.
The day the year changed.
She ran away from home.
Now, decades later, I only feel regret.
A few years after my eonni ran away, the succession eventually fell to me.
To support that heavy position, a single B-rank ability was far too burdensome.
I whipped myself countless times to endure the pressure.
As time passed, what I had done to my eonni kept surfacing in my mind.
It was so hard for me, even with the title of the youngest B-rank ability user.
Imagining how far my eonni, who started as only a C-rank, must have pushed herself was agonizing.
I constantly regretted and reflected on the actions I had taken against my eonni, who had put in all that effort.
One day, while living in regret and reflection while feeling the pressure of the succession.
Thinking I couldn't take it anymore, I started looking for my eonni to step down from the succession.
That was the year my eonni turned twenty-five.
As a result of my inquiries, I found she had started a new life.
My eonni, who had removed herself from the family register, hadn't abandoned her surname or changed her name.
A three-year-old son and a husband of the same age.
And even a position as a reserve team leader for a large guild...
She had stepped away from the succession of the Han-il Guild, the best guild in South Korea, and was living an ordinary life.
I, who had wanted to return the succession to my eonni because I couldn't bear the pressure, had no choice but to give up that thought.
I didn't want to pass that pressure onto my eonni, who was already living so happily.
From then on, the weight and pain of the succession were mine alone.
I had to steel my heart, enough to remain calm even after swallowing bitter pills.
I had to hide my true feelings and show only a strong exterior.
Because this position as the representative of the Han-il Guild...
And the succession that was to follow the representative...
Were positions where you would collapse if you couldn't bear the weight.
And so, my eonni, who had cut ties with the Han-il Guild, never once came to visit us after running away.
I, too, lived with the thought that I shouldn't look for my eonni anymore.
In the end, I struggled for my life, overcame the weight of the succession, and became the representative.
Even though a greater weight began to press down on me, unlike the succession position which had almost no authority, the representative position had a foundation laid out to withstand that weight.
That must have been the first time I was truly grateful to my mother.
One day, I learned about a large-scale project planned and prepared by the Hwaryong Guild to go on an expedition to the Demon World.
Since the Hwaryong Guild had been recruiting through the media for nearly a year, there was no way I couldn't have known.
I already knew that the project would fail.
It was because the Han-il Guild had researched how dangerous the environment was in that dimension where the monsters beyond the Gate came from.
In fact, it was a problem that most large-scale guilds were aware of.
The expedition team, which was expected to be completely wiped out a little over a month after entering the Demon World, surprisingly had some survivors return.
From then on, I started to become interested in that project.
As I investigated the expedition team, I learned of an unbelievable fact at some point.
The vice expedition leader of that large-scale project to the Demon World was my eonni.
I didn't know why my eonni had participated in that project.
Upon learning that my eonni, who had started a new life and had a family, had participated in that dangerous project, I immediately hired a private detective agency to track her movements.
It was a shock to me.
Her son, who had been dragged into a Gate.
Her husband, who couldn't overcome that shock and eventually passed away in the hospital.
I had believed she was liberated from everything while living an ordinary life.
My eonni had been living in hell for some time.
My eonni, who didn't return from beyond the Gate.
The end of my eonni as described by the expedition members.
Hearing the eyewitness account that she had fortunately met her son, I felt as if my eonni's grudge had been resolved, if only a little.
These were the final stories of my eonni that I remembered.
There were no more traces of my eonni left in this world.
My eonni, who had abandoned everything and left the Han-il Guild, couldn't even leave anything behind when she left this world.
Neither her bloodline nor her honor.
She disappeared without leaving a single thing behind.
After stopping my work in the office and thinking about my eonni for a long while, it was already time to leave.
Thinking that if I, the representative, remained at my desk, the other subordinates wouldn't be able to leave, I packed the materials I was holding into my bag.
Lee Shin-ah intended to do the remaining work at home.
'Come to think of it...'
As I had been reflecting on the past, I had forgotten that I needed to find the man my eldest daughter, Hyun-ah, had mentioned.
Still, I saw a document envelope that seemed to contain a lot of personal information such as height, appearance, and name, as if Hyun-ah had gathered some materials.
I suddenly became curious about who the man was that my daughter, Hyun-ah, who had become an S-class, was interested in.
Driven by curiosity, I opened the document envelope and took out the papers to check them.
I almost dropped the papers, my heart sinking as I read them.
The man my daughter was interested in.
He was the only blood relative my eonni had left.
He was the son my eonni had met in the Demon World, risking her own life.
And he was someone who should have disappeared when the Gate closed.
Having received countless materials from the private detective agency, I knew his appearance because I had seen it dozens of times.
The fact that he was alive was absolutely shocking.
"Lee Seon-ah..."
I recited the name written on the document once.
Whether the photo was old, his appearance hadn't changed from the photos I had received from the private detective agency in the past.
His appearance hadn't changed at all.
The last time he was sighted was beyond the Gate, but somehow, he had returned to Earth.
My heart began to race.
The last trace of my eonni, who should have disappeared without leaving anything behind, had come back to life.
My nephew, and my eonni's son.
And the man my daughter had started to take an interest in.
I didn't know what kind of interest my daughter had in him, but that interest must absolutely not be the emotion of love.
That was the thought Lee Shin-ah held.